The fourth World Cup of the 2011 season opened on Thursday in Chengdu, China, with the women's semifinals. Rendy Lynn Opdycke (Mercer Island, Wash.) competed in Group A and Suzanne Stettinius (Parkton, Md.) competed in Group B.

Both women followed the fencing with solid swimming times in a relatively “slow” pool. Opdycke posted a time of 2:16.06 (5th place in her group) and Stettinius clocked in at 2:24.01. Heading into the combined event, both U.S. athletes were on pace to qualify for Saturday's final. Opdycke stood in 16th place and Stettinius was 9th. A top-18 finish was needed to advance to the finals.

But the Americans had a rough go of it in the combined run/shoot. Opdycke spent more than two minutes on the shooting range and found the running in the hot and humid environment very challenging. She finished in 14:44.93 and placed 26th.

Stettinius encountered problems sighting her gun during the warm-up and also spent over two minutes on the shooting range, finishing the event in a time of 14:06.40 and dropping to 25th place.